Turn NUM LOCK on at start-up

"By default the numlock status is the same as it was in when you properly shut down the computer. If it was on when you shut it down it will be on when you again turn the computer on."

--

Richard Urban

Microsoft MVP

Windows Desktop Experience/Security

If nothing else, the answer provided by Microsoft MVP's certainly helps explain many of the user issues reported with each new OS release.  Even if the question was "Does having numlock on/off at time of system shutdown affect the status of numlock when system is powered up?" it would still be a poor answer as numlock status on power-up is independent on it's status on system shutdown performed by a user.  On start-up, numlock status is dictated by system settings default, and once logged on, the status is then dictated by user specific hkey reg setting that controls what happens after a user logs on.

Since the original question keeps coming up as a top search, a complete explanation would be most helpful.  Considering the original question from "BJ55" can be considered to be a 2 part question, the answer should indeed contain 2 components.  Perhaps the following will be of help as it applies to Windows OS 7, 8, 8.1, and/or 10:

"How do you edit InitialKeyboardIndicators in the registry editor so num lock is on at start-up?"

I would recommend that a user enable Num Lock on startup using registry editor.  In doing so, it would first be best to create a backup of the registry and/or create a system restore point.  Once that is completed, follow these steps:

1. Press Win + R and type in Regedit
2. Navigate to registry key HKEY_USERS\Default\Control Panel\Keyboard
3. Right click on the “InitialKeyboardIndicators”, select Modify and change Value data to 2.
4. Exit Registry.

***"The number that is already present is 2147483648 which I have no idea what it stands for!  Can anyone help me out here?"***On many systems, you may see the default value data as 2147483648, which is a syntax string or simply a different computer instruction "language"; If this is the case, such as in BJ55's, enter a value of 2147483650 in it's place should work as well.

Take care in ensuring you are following the correct path as described above as the "InitialKeyboardIndicators" lives in a few different locations.

Admittedly, I am not a Microsoft MVP and may not understand how all this works, but I hope this helps.

Yes. There is no way to keep NumLock on. It just doesn't work.

On top of it I lost all my ASUS motherboard drivers. Win 10 doesn't read the DVD and there are no suitable drivers on the Web.

This is not the case many times I have shut down windows 10 and rebooted with numlock on and i am forced to hit the button again upon startup. It did work this way when i upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 but since i had to do a clean install of windows 10 this is not the case and in fact it never stays on unless i put the computer to sleep when ever the power to the machine is lost either through shutdown or reboot this setting is turned off on shutdown.